Hyderabad: The Narendra Modi-led Central government is struggling to pursue a legal fight against Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, with its case challenging his continuation in the Telangana cadre remaining unheard in the Telangana High Court for almost four years.
Following the state bifurcation, Somesh Kumar was allotted to Andhra Pradesh cadre, but obtained an order from the Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in March 2016 to work in the Telangana cadre.
The High Court website reveals that a Writ Petition was filed by the Department of Personnel and Training against the CAT order in February 2017. It was listed only once in June 2019 for admission. If Mr Kumar continues to enjoy this privilege and work in the Telangana cadre for the next two years, he would retire from service in 2023.
Stating that the CAT “misconstrued the provisions of law and its approach is manifestly misconceived and misdirected,” the DoPT knocked the HC doors with a plea to suspend the operation of the CAT order.
“Both parties have their respective arguments. Let the case be judged on merits. But, the case has remained unheard so far,” said sources in DoPT, which is the controlling authority of the All India Services (AIS) officers.
Somesh Kumar argued in the tribunal that he should be permitted to continue in the TS cadre as his wife has been working in the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Hyderabad.
Mr Kumar questioned the rationale behind the rules framed by the Advisory Committee for “outsider officers” belonging to the unreserved category at the time of cadre allocation. "Outsiders" are defined as those personnel allotted to the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh from other states.
Somesh Kumar also took objection to former chief secretary Dr P. K. Mohanty being a part of the cadre allocation process when his daughter and son-in-law were serving in the State.
The DoPT, in its affidavit to the High Court, however said “the CAT failed to appreciate that so long as the principles of allocation are uniformly applied, Somesh can’t make any grievance merely because the cadre to which he has been allocated does not suit him, or he wants to be allocated to a state of his choice.”
Further, the DoPT argues that CAT erred in deciding Somesh’s case without specifying as to what will happen to the allocation of other officers’ in a similar circumstance. “The bias of CAT is an error apparent on face,” it pointed out.
The Centre defended Dr Mohanty’s inclusion in the committee as material on record is contrary to CAT’s erred stand that his inclusion vitiated the advisory panel’s deliberations. Different classifications for deciding the cadre allocation between unreserved and reserved categories was to extend equal opportunities to both, it said.
